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Jon Bellion Biography

Jonathan David "Jon" Bellion[1] (born December 26, 1990) is an American rapper, singer, songwriter and record producer. He was born and raised in Lake Grove, New York on Long Island.[2] Bellion has released four mixtapes and one studio album, the most recent of which,The Human Condition, was released on June 10, 2016, and it debuted at number five on the US Billboard 200.[3] He is currently signed to Visionary Music Group[4] and Capitol Records. Bellion also provided vocals for the 2015 EDM song "Beautiful Now" by Zedd and opened the concerts from the third leg of Twenty One Pilots' Emotional Roadshow World Tour.

Early life
Jon Bellion was born and raised on Lake Grove, New York in his parents' house with his sisters, and currently still lives at home with his parents.[5] Torn between his love for basketball and music through out high school, Jon’s junior year he made the choice to pursue his music career. After high school Jon enrolled in the highly acclaimed music program at the private Five Towns College in NY.[6] When he was a teen he visited his English cousin, Alice Griffiths down in Cornwall. Here he would go to the beaches, one of his favourite spots. This was the place where he was inspired by the well known artist Kanye West - one of his biggest inspirations.

Career
2011–14: Early career and various mixtapes
Bellion's first mixtape, Scattered Thoughts Vol. 1 was released in early 2011 via his Facebook page and reached over 11,000 downloads. Bellion composes and produces all of his own music. Jon Bellion signed with Visionary Music Group in 2012 and released a cover of Drake's "The Motto" on VMG's YouTube page.[7]

In 2013, Bellion wrote the chorus to the song "The Monster" by Eminem featuring Rihanna.[8] This song also won a Grammy Award in the 2015 Grammy Awards for Best Rap/Sung Collaboration. Bellion also co-wrote and produced the song "Trumpets" by Jason Derulo in 2012, which was not released until 2013 in the UK and 2014 in the US.

Jon Bellion released his fourth free project, titled The Definition, under Visionary Music Group on September 23, 2014.[9] Bellion headlined his first national tour called The Beautiful Mind Tour in October 2014.[10]

2015–present: Touring and The Human Condition
Bellion released several singles in early 2015, including "Woodstock (Psychedelic Fiction)", "All Time Low", and "Woke the Fuck Up"[11] through Capitol Records. On March 31, 2015, Bellion announced his second national tour, The Definition Tour.[12] The tour began on May 26 and concluded on July 2. Bellion was also featured on "Beautiful Now", a song on Zedd's album True Colors, which was released on May 15, 2015. Bellion was also featured on American rapper B.o.B's album Psycadelik Thoughtz on the song "Violence".

Bellion released several acoustic versions of his songs from The Definition album. He released "All Time Low (Acoustic)" on February 26, 2016. As well as releasing "Human (Acoustic)" on March 4, 2016.

Bellion confirmed that his debut album The Human Condition was set to be released on June 10, 2016. He released three promotional singles from the album: "Guillotine", on April 22, 2016, "80's Films", on May 27, 2016, and "Maybe IDK" on June 2, 2016, with the lead single from the album, "All Time Low" releasing on August 30, 2016. On June 10, The Human Condition was officially released. Bellion states that the album is simply about being human, explaining, "Us as humans all have the same problems. We struggle with pride and tons of different issues that nobody really wants to talk about. So I figured if I'm the honest one showing how human I am, it will make people feel better about themselves." In his music, Jon talks a lot about God. He doesn’t just talk about a vague idea of faith; he makes sure to emphasize God specifically.[13] Jon Bellion also says the sonics and album artwork for The Human Condition is all to get the attention of Disney/Pixar, saying, "It's like a giant business plan for Disney Pixar because it’s always been my dream to score a movie for them. So basically if my debut album blows up, John Lasseter [of Disney Pixar] and these guys will hopefully see these images and be like 'Wait a second this is not one of our movies, what is this?'"[14] The artwork for the album was created by visual development artist David Ardinaryas Lojaya. During The Human Condition tour, Bellion announced that a representative from Pixar met him at one of his shows. He was invited to the Pixar Campus, and said he might be involved in one of the Pixar sequels coming out in the next couple of years. Bellion said his favorite Pixar movie is The Incredibles.

Jon Bellion was the opening act for the rock duo twenty one pilots’ U.S leg of their 2017 “Emotional Roadshow tour”. The 33-show tour began on January 17 in Providence Rhode Island and ended on March 5 in Louisville Kentucky. [15]

Influences
Bellion has stated on multiple occasions that Kanye West is one of his biggest inspirations. "I loved everything but it was Kanye West who really changed everything for me," he said in a Huffington Post interview. West is also the reason Bellion decided to drop out of college and pursue music. Jon has also stated that he was inspired by Eminem, Pharrell Williams, Coldplay, John Mayer, André 3000, and more.[16] [17] Bellion has also made it known that he is a big fan of J Dilla and Disney Pixar, drawing inspiration from the musician and computer animation film studio for both The Definition and The Human Condition. Bellion explains that he loves how Pixar movies are "simple yet presented in a way that is groundbreaking."[18] Jon credits much of his musical development and success to the guys in his band whom he met while in college, expressing his love for them in his “Beautiful Mind Documentary” stating, “everybody in my band has taught me something, and has gotten me to where I am because of them” continuing “I surround myself with people better than me at something, you will very rarely see somebody around me, especially musically, who I don't look up to”.[19]